JESUS: BORN IN HUMILITY
Series: The Messianic Prophecies Of Jesus
by Ron Ritchie
During my teen years I lived and worked on the farm section of a Pennsylvania
orphanage. We usually worked in teams of four or five boys, and we did all
the chores that were necessary on a dairy farm that provided milk, butter,
cheese, meat, and grain for a few hundred children and staff. Farm work
was fun in the spring, summer, and fall, but it was very difficult in the
Pennsylvania winters. So our resident farmer would move teams of boys around
the orphanage so that from time to time each team would end up on those
cold winter days in our nice warm bakery. That experience left a marked
impression on my life. I remember Saturdays in particular, when we baked
long, dark brown loaves of bread for the week and Pennsylvania Dutch and
raisin cakes. By noon the smell of the freshly baked bread and cakes would
begin to spread throughout the orphanage, and kids and adults would just
kind of drop by hoping for a handout. By two o'clock or so we had the week's
bread all placed on large trays, and then we would put the topping on the
Dutch and raisin cakes that would be served as a special treat on Sunday
mornings. Finally we would make several trips through the cold winter winds
for about fifty yards with our trays loaded with those fresh loaves of bread
and cakes, to the warm main kitchen run by Miss Louise. There we would put
all the loaves of bread and cakes on their special shelves.
After that chore was done, we would always look at Miss Louise, who had
a mother's heart and a twinkle in her eye. We knew that she would take one
of the large fresh loaves of brown bread; cut it into thick slices; and
place them all in front of some freshly made butter, jelly, and honey. She
would point to the tea kettle and say with a thick German accent, "Boys,
let's have a snack!" The bread was so good that we would eat the whole
loaf. I left that home after about eight years, but each time my wife and
I would return for a visit I would go back to the main kitchen, and Miss
Louise with that same twinkle in her eye would hand us a fresh loaf of brown
bread to take home.
Ours was a humble bakery, but it was able to produce much good bread for
the hungry people in that small community so that they could continue to
live wholesome lives. And in a spiritual sense God also offered the hungry
world good bread out of his humble bakery, Bethlehem, "the House of
Bread," so very long ago yet with current application to everyone who
will receive it. Jesus said one day during his earthly ministry, "I
am the bread of life....This is the bread which comes down out of heaven,
so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down
out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and
the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh"
(John 6:48-51). Jesus was saying that in him was, and is, everything necessary
for physical, emotional, and spiritual life.
During this Christmas season we have been looking at some of the prophetic
scriptures leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Today we
will look at an Old Testament passage written by the prophet Micah, who
lived in Judah and was called upon to prophecy about Bethlehem, the very
town where the Messiah would be born, seven hundred years before that event
occurred.
The Messiah Would Be Born in Bethlehem
Micah 5:1-5
Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;
They have laid siege against us;
With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathath,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity."
Therefore, He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God.
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.
And this One will be our peace.
Micah's name meant "Who is like Yahweh?" He wrote this book in
about 700 BC. He was called of God to prophecy to Israel and Judah over
a period of some fifty years along with Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos. Micah had
a heart of courage, conviction, and rare personal faith. He wrote about
himself in these words (3:8):
"But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the LORD,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin."
His message can be summed up as follows (6:8):
"He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?"
The Lord had given this prophet a heart and a message to lead the people
of God back into a personal relationship with him, and to then, by God's
power, bring about social righteousness toward the poverty-stricken masses.
Blessings would come upon those who repented of their sins, wrath upon those
who disobeyed. Using broad brush-strokes, Micah prophesied (1) the fall
of Israel by the mighty hand of Assyria that occurred in 721 BC, (2) the
invasion of Judah by Assyria in 701 BC, and (3) the captivity of Judah by
the mighty hand of Babylon that occurred in 586 BC (See Micah 4:9-10).
The prophecy of 5:1 had immediate application to Micah's then present situation.
Let's look at it briefly:
"Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;
They have laid siege against us;
With a rod they will smite the judge [king] of Israel on the cheek."
Micah seems personally involved in this prophecy; he refers to the present
in the word "now" and includes himself among the population in
the word "us." The context seems to be sometime after Assyria
defeated Samaria and took the northern tribes into exile in 721 BC. The
fulfillment of this prophecy was probably when Sennacherib, King of Assyria,
invaded Judah, set up a siege against Jerusalem, and began to insult King
Hezekiah in 701 BC. (See 2 Kings 18-19; he is reported to have said in his
journals that he had Hezekiah trapped "like a bird in a cage."
See alsoTyndale Old Testament Commentaries by D. J. Wiseman.) Hezekiah
was a godly king and trusted God to deliver him and Judah from Assyria.
Based on that trust, God sent an angel of death among the Assyrian army
(some 185,000 men), "...and when men arose early in the morning, behold,
all of these were dead." Sennacherib went home in disgrace only to
be killed by his sons when he went into the temple of his god to pray (see
2 Kings 19:35-37; Isaiah 37:36-38).
Some Biblical scholars think that in this verse Micah was only prophesying
the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, when Zedekiah, the last king to sit on
the Davidic throne, was taken into Babylonian captivity; and that the next
king to sit on the Davidic throne would be the Messiah. Either way we look
at these verses, the king of Judah is being humiliated with a rod on the
cheek. Micah's contemporary Isaiah spoke of the Assyrian army as a rod (see
Isaiah 10:5).
Now in verses 2-5 the prophet looks across the future and sees, as if they
were a series of "mountain peaks," important events that will
place hope in the hearts of the faithful remnant of Israel.
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathath ["Fruitful County"],
Too little to be among the clans of Judah...."
Whereas verse 1 spoke of defeat in Jerusalem, verse 2 speaks of victory
in Bethlehem. God had made a promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-13: "When
your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise
up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish
his kingdom." Micah now prophesies that sometime in the future this
king out of the house of David would have his origin not in the city of
Jerusalem but in the humble village of David, Bethlehem. ("Too little"
in the Hebrew means lowly, least, weak, or despised; see Psalm 119:141.)
Bethlehem was a village outside of Jerusalem so small that among the many
clans within the tribe of Judah they were not even thought of as having
any significance. As David was the least among his brothers in the eyes
of his father, so Bethlehem was the least among the clans.
Micah's prophecy was placed in the minds of the people for some seven hundred
years until a then unknown engaged couple from Nazareth arrived in Bethlehem.
She was a virgin, yet with child; and he was a carpenter in love with God
and with her who was seeking to be obedient to the Roman government, which
had required him to register in the town of his lineage---the house of David,
Bethlehem.
"From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel."
Micah's contemporary Isaiah said (9:6),
"For a child will be born to us [speaking of his humanity], a son will
be given to us [speaking of his deity];
And the government will rest on His shoulders...."
Out of the line of David, out of Bethlehem, and out of the womb of Mary
would come One who would do the will of God on this earth and would rule
Israel. When the Messiah arrived on earth (the first time), some wise men
greatly troubled King Herod when they began asking around Jerusalem, "Where
is He who has been born King of the Jews?" (Matthew 2:2). Herod gathered
his chief priests and scribes to search out the Scriptures, and they came
back and reported, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written
by the prophet:
'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;
For out of you shall come forth a Ruler,
Who will shepherd My people Israel.'"
(Matthew 2:5-6.)
When the Messiah had completed his ministry on earth the first time, he
said in one of his last prayers to his heavenly Father before the cross,
"I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which
Thou hast given Me to do" (John 17:4). But in His second coming the
best is yet to come!
"His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity."
As the Christ Child, the Messiah would be born of a virgin girl in the village
of Bethlehem; as the Son of God, he was from eternity. He is God. He is
the Word of God, the voice of God to all who will listen. He was known as
"the angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament. He told Moses at
the burning bush, "I AM WHO I AM [the self-existing One]" (Exodus
3:14). Jesus told the Pharisees, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before
Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58). And John wrote, "He was in
the beginning with God" (John 1:2). But when Deity became human he
was known as Jesus, the Lamb of God who would save his people from their
sin.
However, in verse 3 Micah sees that before the Messiah would be born in
Bethlehem, the nation of Judah would have to go into the seventy-year Babylonian
captivity because of their sin against God. And in fact God gave up his
involvement with his people, the Jews, to not only the Babylonians, but
the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans; and they have continued to be
dominated by other peoples to the present. But they will come back into
full focus in the days to come.
"Therefore, He will give them up until the time
When she who is in labor has borne a child.
This appears to be the prophecy of Mary's giving birth to the Messiah as
well as of God's giving birth to the church through the godly remnant at
Pentecost.
Then the remainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
And He will arise and shepherd His flock
In the strength of the LORD,
In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God.
And they will remain,
Because at that time He will be great
To the ends of the earth.
And this one will be our Peace."
As a result of these births the believing remnant began and will continue
to call out to Israel and the Gentiles alike to come back to the Great Shepherd
and Prince of Peace (Micah 7:14; Psalm 23; Ezekiel 34; John 10:1-30; 1 Peter
5:1-4; Isaiah 9:6; Ephesians 2:14). This is presently going on for Christians
(made up of reborn Jews and Gentiles) and will have its final fulfillment
(according to Romans 9-11) when Jesus sets up his throne in Jerusalem and
begins his reign over the whole earth as Lord of lords and King of kings.
The prophet Zechariah, four hundred years before the arrival of the Messiah
in Jerusalem, wrote (9:9):
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble and mounted on a donkey...."
The Jewish leaders rejected their King on Palm Sunday so long ago. Yet he
will come again to Jerusalem after the great tribulation, and many in Israel
will see him and bow their knee to him as their King and Chief Shepherd.
One of the things Anne Marie and I love to do when we go to France is find
a place to live in a small village, then get up early in the morning, go
down to the local bakery, and purchase some fresh baguettes. Then we find
an outdoor cafe and order some café au lait, and while we eat our
baguettes we watch the life of the village. The smell of fresh bread is
everywhere. It's fun to watch the older men come into the village with their
shopping bags empty, and half an hour later walk home with all their fresh
meat, fruit, and a couple of baguettes---one under their arm and another
in the process of being consumed, thus satisfying a basic physical need.
When Jesus came to this earth he spoke of humble and everyday things so
that all who heard him would be able to relate to him and his message of
salvation. That is why he said, "I am the bread of life."
Now let's turn to Luke 2:1-7, and we will see that some seven hundred years
after Micah's prophecy, the Messiah was born in an amazing event in Bethlehem.
The Messiah Was Born in Bethlehem
Luke 2:1-7
Now it came about in those days that a decree went out from
Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited world [the
Roman Empire]...And all were proceeding to register for the census, everyone
to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of
Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because
he was of the house and family of David, in order to register, along with
Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. And it came about that
while they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And
she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and
laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Last week we saw how God sent the angel Gabriel to a godly senior citizen
and priest, Zacharias, and told him that his godly barren wife Elizabeth
would have a son to be named John, who would become the fulfillment of Malachi
3:2; 4:5-6 as the forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah (Luke 1:1-17).
Then six months later God sent Gabriel to a godly young engaged virgin woman
named Mary and told her she would conceive and bear a son, saying, "and
you shall name Him Jesus." Thus began the mystery of the Incarnation,
God in the flesh. In Luke 1:39-55 we saw that Mary, pregnant with the Son
of God, visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was in her sixth month of pregnancy.
Elizabeth blessed Mary, and then Mary broke out in a new song of praise
to God Almighty.
Mary went back to Nazareth and told Joseph all that the Lord was doing with
her. As a result of their spiritual encounter with Gabriel, Joseph was willing
to marry Mary, so they settled down in Nazareth to await the birth of Immanuel.
Within the ninth month the couple as well as all who lived in Nazareth were
informed by the local Roman officer in the garrison that Caesar Augustus
had sent out a decree that a census should be taken of his empire in order
for proper taxation to take place. So Joseph and Mary, who was now great
with child, began the journey of some ninety miles south to their home town.
I love the way God used the Roman government to help fulfill a seven-hundred-year-old
prophecy in which his Son was to be born in the humble village of Bethlehem!
As we have seen, Bethlehem means "the House of Bread," and so
it was a fitting place for "the Bread of Life" to be born. It
was a small village some 2,550 feet above sea level and five miles west
of Jerusalem. There Boaz and Ruth, the great-grandparents of David had lived.
And there in time David had been born and raised, and had tended his father
Jesse's sheep before he was anointed by the priest Samuel to be the king
of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1). Christ's birth in Bethlehem was an indication
of his Davidic-messianic ministry.
When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, they found that rooms were hard
to come by, since so many other people from the house of David had arrived
before them. To add a little more pressure to the situation, Mary was aware
that she was about to give birth. So Joseph found a room that was built
along a rock ledge with a large cave cut into the side of the hill, used
for the travelers' animals. He made a warm place with some new straw. "And
she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and
laid Him in a manger...." The Son of God came into this world under
the most humble of circumstances.
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, wrote a free-flowing translation
of Philippians 2:6-8 which reads, "When the time came, he set aside
the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process.
He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient
life and then died a selfless, obedient death---and the worst kind of death
at that: a crucifixion."
The apostle John would write, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14). He was the Son of God,
the Savior of the world, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal
Father, the Prince of Peace, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Immanuel,
the only hope for man to ever be set free from Satan and the bondage of
sin. And yet he was willing to be born in a rented cave in Bethlehem. Paul
would write some sixty years after his humble birth, "For you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your
sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich"
(2 Corinthians 8:9).
The Birth of the Savior Was Announced
Luke 2: 8-14
And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out
in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel
of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them; and they were terribly frightened. And the angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy
which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there
has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be
a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God, and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
Let me share this poem by the late Joe Bayly with you:
Praise God for Christmas. Praise Him for the incarnation for
Word made Flesh.
I will not sing of shepherds watching flocks on frosty night or angel choristers.
I will not sing of stable bare in Bethlehem or lowing oxen wise men,
trailing distant star with gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Tonight I will sing praise to the Father who stood on heaven's threshold
and said farewell to His Son as He stepped across the stars
to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
And I will sing praise to the infinite eternal Son
who became most finite a Baby who would one day be executed for my crimes.
Praise Him in the heavens,
Praise Him in the stable,
Praise Him in my heart.
God the Father made his plans and then announced through his prophets not
only that a virgin would be found with child (Isaiah7:14), the son promised
in Isaiah 9:6, but that seven hundred years before his Son's birth he had
arranged the very town where he would be born:
"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel."
Bethlehem became the symbol of God's love toward humanity; the bakery, if
we could be so bold, from which the aroma of life itself wafted out to the
shepherds, the wise men, and all of humanity as they heard Jesus offer them
the words of salvation: "I am the living bread that came down out of
heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever...."
Catalog No. 4386
Various Scriptures
Fourth Message
Ron Ritchie
December 12, 1993
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